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Winnipeg's Nellie (HE aa= ‘McClung Theatre

_ By PAULA FLETCHER Nellie McClung group of Innipeg is possibly the longest-

| "Unning women’s theatre in North

America, Many are fairly new; many % the older ones are now defunct. The Nellie McClung group began

_ With the women’s movement in 1969.

'S original members felt theatre was most effective way to reach great Numbers of grass roots women. T asked Millie Lamb, a charter Member of Nellie McClung, to tell Canadian Tribune about her or- 8anization.

C.T.: What do you try to do with Your theatre? ie: Our women’s theatre con- Centrates on Women’s real issues and goals. It places them centre Stage, both from the point of view of Person and of the audience. Not Only does it combat the stereotypes Of women as sex objects but also Shows them in positive roles, en- 8ged in the struggle for liberation. on Do you mean women’s libera-

Millie: We don’t see it as separate and apart from the struggle to eman- Cipate the working class. In fact we

_ Ste it as an integral part.

C.T.: Is Nellie McClung a profes- sional theatre? Millie: The majority of women and Men who come into the group have ! NO previous experience; they ically learn through experience. Ost members go to work, or attend School or are working parents and y very active in other move- Ments. We write our own scripts. Lately we have been writing collec- tively. First we get together to decide On how to handle a subject for a par- ticular audience, say nurses. We Usually meet with a group of them beforehand to research conditions at their workplace. We will assign a Person to script the skit, then we'll all go over it for touch-up and final form. This system has been working

Very well for us and has produced

Some terrific scripts. To illustrate: after our performance for the nurses Many came tous andasked, ‘‘Do you Work in hospitals? It was so much an what happens there all the

Our theatre has provided a lot of °Pportunities to involve women in Positive productive roles, not only as Performers and writers but in stag-

a movement and the business end

C.T.: What kind of audiences do you play for? : Millie: It’s fair to say the major audience now consists of working Women in the process of organizing Unions or already in unions, such as CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Mployees), nurses as I mentioned, 80vernment employees such as PSAC (Public Service Alliance of Canada) and MGEA (Manitoba J0Overnment Employees Associa- tion) members. Other than women in trade union movement who have 4 Certain political awareness, there are literally thousands of others we have played for at the Ys, churches,

Canadians have in recent years n few films produced by the cialist countries, hardly any lations of plays, poems or vels, virtually none from the viet Union in particular.

A hostile Canadian official pol- cy now embargoes Soviet- anadian cultural exchanges, so tours of dancers, musicians, ther entertainers and art exhibits

for teachers, students, IODE, action committees and other women’s groups to whom these ideas are new, exciting and terribly stimulating. C.T.: So you don’t hire halls and have a regular season? : Millie: We’ ve done that but not in the last year. For one thing, we're too swamped with calls from various groups of women in struggle who

want this kind of direction from us. °

So many women involved in unions have told us, ‘‘In a five-minute skit you can make a point clear that we've been trying to make for a couple of union meetings!”’

We also do street theatre. At the Safeway strike and the Manitoba Paramedical strike, to name two. Our group was actually born out of street or guerrilla theatre. We'd go out to the shopping centres and do skits about the need to remove abor- tion from the Criminal Code before

we were kicked out by the security .

guard. But now we have an audience for this type of theatre because the women’s movement has become broader and we offer them encour- agement. Our street theatre always meets with tremendous enthusiasm from pickets and their supporters.

C.T.: Give us an idea of your scripts, Millie.

Millie: First I’d like to say they're 100 per cent Canadian content. We write about 95 per cent ourselves. Those we don’t script, we like to dramatize Manitoba women writers such as Margaret Laurence and Nel- lie McClung, also other Canadian writers, and we concentrate on reg- ional questions as well as the actual experience of our audiences.

We try to make our point with

humor and satire. We have a skit, The House that TV Built, and Com-

- mercials. In The House we take on

the TV industry and its portrayal of women, as well as the fact that money is what it's all about. The commercials are shown up for their insulting images of women.

One of our standards is Votes for Men, a role reversal scripted from the writings of Nellie McClung, con- cerning a mock parliament held by Manitoba women, where they were the government and men came to ask them for the vote. The script uses exact quotes from Sir Rodmond Rob- lin, premier at the time, in his argu- ment to deny women the vote. In our script the women use his arguments on the men.

‘We have a host of trade union skits, skits directed at the educa- tional system, and simply exposing the oppression-of women in our soci- ety. We also have a lot of original songs. Our skits and songs crystal- lize immediate social and political situations and make them very clear. We make the point with humor, so that the situations that confront women and, suddenly, the dynamics of these situations, are revealed in a very concrete and humorous way.

C.T.: What are your plans for this year?

Millie: We have a number of engagements lined up already. We average one or twoa month. We also hope to get our best scripts together into a book recounting our experi- ence and encouraging other women to begin women’s theatre which, we have learned, adds a very important dimension to the whole women’s movement.

Scene from Votes for Men

(~ \

| Milton Acorn

after Brecht _ By MILTON ACORN

I Milton Acorn, not at first aware

That was my name and what I knew was life, Come from an Island to which I've often returned Looking for peace and usually found strife.

‘til I came to see it was no pocket’

In a Saint's pants while outside trouble reigned; And after all my my favourite mode

of weather’s been a hurricane

The spattered colour of the time has marked me So I'm a man of many appearances:

Have come many times to poetry

And come back to define what was meant.

Often I’ve been coupled, and often alone No matter how I try I can't choose

Which it shall be. I’ve been

Ill-treated, but often marvellously well-used.

What’s a man if not put to good use? Nothing’s happened I want to forget. What's a day without a notable Event between sunrise and sunset?

My present lover finds me gentle

So gentle I'll be in my boisterous way. Another one was heard to call me noble. That didn’t stop her from going away.

To be born on an island’s to be sure You are native with a habitat. Growing up on one’s good training For living in a country, on a planet.

Shall I tell you the soil’s red

As a flag? Sand a pink flesh gleam

You could use to tone a precious stone? All its colours are the colours of dreams.

_ Perhaps only the colours / dream For I grew under that prismatic sky Like a banner of many colours Alternately splashed and washed clean.

The Island’s small ... Every opinion counts. I'm accustomed to fighting for them.

Lord I thank Thee for the enemies

Who even in childhood, tempered me.

I beg pardon, God, for the insult

Saying You lived and were responsible ...a torturous all-odds-counting manner Of thinking marks me an Islander.

Evil’s been primary, good secondary

In the days I’ve been boy, youth and man.

I don’t look to any rule of pure virtue

But certainly not continuence of this damned ...

Damned? Damned did I say? This glorious age When the ancient rule of classes is hit

And hit again. History’s greatest change

Is happening ... And I’m part of it.

from The Island Means Minago : (Copyright 1975) NC Selo

i

The politics of multiculturalism

By WILFRED SZCZESNY Multiculturalism is first of aH a demographic fact of Canadian reali-

ty, historically emerging from the

very process of our country’s growth and development.

Through the decades of this cen- tury, Canada has benefitted greatly from the productive activity of the vast numbers of immigrants who have settled here. No less important has been the role of multiculturalism in this sense in the enrichment of Canadian culture and the formation of a distinctive Canadian identity.

Multiculturalism, however, is also a set of government policies de- signed to manipulate, to divide and rule, to provide political leverage.

These two aspects of multicultur- alism, its positive and negative sides, together reveal the ruling class’s basic approach to culture as some-

thing to be cynically manipulated to maintain the status quo.

The Canadian government might have adopted a policy of multicul- turalism out of a belief that the coun-

‘try's many ethnic groups all have a

contribution to make to our society. It might have, but it did not. Its motivation in adopting that policy, setting up an elaborate bureaucracy and spreading its largesse was a de- sire to counteract Quebec’s growing demand that. its’ nationhood be recognized.

As pressures from Quebec grew, the federal government decided to enlist the support of ethnic minorities to maintain Anglo- Canadian dominance. Appealing first to the lust for power of the right-wing leaders of the various communities, the government en- couraged concepts like the ‘‘third

group”’ and the ‘‘third force,” sug- gesting that the communities which are component parts of Canada’s two nations are somehow equivalent to the nations. Relying secondly on the greed of those same “‘leaders’’, the government set up an elaborate mechanism to distribute money, jobs and prestige to selected groups (i.e., right-wing organizations) within the communities.

The last touch was their very own cabinet minister through whom these ‘‘leaders’’ could approach the government. Multiculturalism was complete.

The Liberals who instituted the policy had also hoped for other benefits — like electoral support which the Tory Cold Warriors had chipped away — but these, for the most part, failed to materialize.

For their part, the community

‘“leaders’’ grew tired of being con- stantly referred to their own minister whatever issue they might be raising. More trouble and expense than it was worth, the main responsibility was shifted to the pravinces, and the ministry was folded into another de- partment.

Everyone (almost) was happy, and especially Ottawa. The dichotomy between multiculturalism and bi- nationalism was maintained.

The policy finally paid off during the Quebec referendum. Across the country a large portion of the ethnic communities fell into line behind the

- federalist position of the Anglo-

Canadian bourgeoisie, and in Quebec the overwhelming majority of non-French residents voted ‘“‘non.’’ The policy of multicultural- ism stood revealed in all its naked- ness.

. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCT. 31, 1980—Page 7